This 2–4 player scenario follows the entire narrative of the trilogy, from Bag End to Mount Doom.
The Frodo player begins the game with the starting player token. Frodo is followed by The Witch-king, Aragorn, and Saruman.
1. FRODO — FREE PEOPLES
Dwarf, Hobbit, Rohan, and Wizard
2. THE WITCH-KING — SHADOW
Mordor
3. ARAGORN — FREE PEOPLES
Dúnedain and Elf
4. SARUMAN — SHADOW
Isengard, Monstrous, and Southron
Each player draws 7 cards, then must cycle 2 of the cards drawn, leaving a hand of 5 cards.
During the Draw step, each Free Peoples player draws 3 cards, and each Shadow player draws 4 cards.
Each player starts with one Ring token, which can be used once per game.
If you’re playing with 3 people, one person will control both Shadow decks, and the other 2 will each play one of the Free Peoples decks. If there are just 2 of you, each of you will control both decks of your team. When you are playing more than one deck, play the two completely separately, as if you were two separate people. Make sure to keep separate hands, draw decks, cycle piles, eliminated piles, reserve areas, etc. Any rules that refer to “you” or a “player” are directed to the “deck” and not to you as a person. The rules are written with the assumption that each player is controlling one deck.
Once per game, as an action, you can use and discard your Ring token to draw 2 cards. At the end of the game, for each token which has not been used, players add 1 victory point to the final score of their team.